The Solace of Angels
by Julia Vaughn
Summary: Nico's three days in the infirmary lead to a bit more than some bandages... (I suck at summaries. Sorry)
1. Chapter 1

_Day 1_

Nico ran to the meadow, where Will Solace was waiting. "You owe me three days in the infirmary. Remember?" Nico smiled. He was ready for this.

"Alright. Fine!" He threw his hands up, faking surrender. "But none of those stupid night-gown things." Will laughed at him, and then fake pouted.

"Then what's the point? Humiliation is, after all, my specialty."

"I thought it was medicine. Am I making a mistake trusting you?" He smiled started to back up, and Will caught him.

"I hope not. After all, you are stuck with me for three days…" Will took him by the hand and led him to the infirmary.

"Holy crap, Nico!" Will nearly shouted when he saw the werewolf lacerations. "How long have those been there?" Nico cringed. A week maybe? Fatigue had probably stopped them from healing.

"5-7 days maybe. It's probably nothing."

"Nothing? NOTHING?" Will rolled his eyes and went to the supplies cabinet, muttering about infections and bandages and idiot tough-guys. Nico looked around, becoming uneasy. There were _a lot_ of people here. A lot. Most of them in pain or upset about something. He started to tap his fingers rhythmically and look for ways to leave unnoticed. He didn't want to hurt Will's feelings, but he didn't do well with people. He was a lone wolf. A creature of solitude. Will came back, and all of the thoughts were expelled for now.

"Now, are there any other '_nothings'_ I should be looking at?" Will said.

"Well, not really." Will raised an eyebrow.

"What does 'not really' mean?"

"It means not really. I'm just really tired."

"How many times have you shadow traveled in the last week?" Nico didn't want to answer. He looked down and fiddled with the sheet on the metal-framed bed. When he didn't respond, Will sighed. "Nico?"

"I lost count."

"I am really going to have my hands full with you, aren't I?" He isn't wrong, Nico thought. Will dabbed some antiseptic onto a cotton ball and started gently dabbing the wound. Nico flinched at the contact. Damn, that burns! Will flinched with him. "I'm sorry." He said gently, "This is going to hurt a lot. It's been exposed for a week. I'm sorry." He put his other hand on Nico's shoulder to steady him. His hand is warm, and strong, Nico thought. "Ready?" Will held up the cotton ball. Nico bit his lip and nodded. He was ready this time. It wasn't as bad as the first time, but it still hurt a crap ton. He took a deep breath and clenched his fists. A few torturous moments later, Will was done. He threw the cotton ball away and moved his hand. "I'm allowed to use a local anesthetic for the next part. Is that ok?" Nico nodded. The only thing he could think of was how cold his shoulder was where Will's hand had been. There was a pinch in his other shoulder area, and then his upper arm went numb. Will took out a weird u-shaped needle, along with thread that looked like fishing wire. Nico knew what was coming next. He didn't look. Will chuckled as he stitched up Nico's arm. "You know, for the child of the god of death, you're a bit squeamish." Nico rolled his eyes.

"I deal with the dead, not the injured. At least the dead ones aren't in as much pain."

"There." Will said. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" He threw away the needle, and wrapped Nico's arm in a soft white bandage. Nico shook his head. He knew he was being weirdly non-verbal, but he couldn't help it. He was so tired, and it had been a long week. The overwhelming relief was making him realize just how tired he was. Will noticed Nico's shoulders sagging, and gently nudged his shoulders down, and Nico swung his legs up onto the bed. "Sleep now. You need it." And again Nico nodded.

Nico woke up with a start. It took him a few moments to realize where he was. Upon realising, he sighed, and flopped back down on the bed, only to jerk back up again (swearing rather loudly) by the stabbing pain in his arm. He had landed directly on it. "Shit," Nico muttered. He hoped he hadn't broken the stitches. That would suck. he laid back down, more gently this time around. The door clicked open, moonlight flooding the room, and quietly squeaked as it was closed. "Crap!" the intruder whisper-shouted as it slammed slightly. "Shhhhhhh! Percy! We're stealthy tonight, remember?" Nico relaxed when he recognized the voices. It was Percy and Piper. "Hey!" Percy whisper-shouted again. Nico rolled his eyes, and the door opened again. Jason stepped through, his tall figure nearly blocking out the door. He waved goofily. "Hi Nico!" _Kill me now,_ Nico thought. He pretended to be asleep, trying not to smile at their ridiculous antics.

"I told you he would be sleeping!" Piper said.

"He's not sleeping. I saw his mouth twitch." Percy replied, and walked over to Nico.

"He could be dreaming! Do you really want to ruin the dreams of the kid whose heart you crushed repeatedly for 4 years?"

"My heart was _NOT _crushed!" Nico stated, giving up the ruse.

"I knew it!" Jason said. Percy glared at him.

"You did not!"

"Did too!"

"I said it first!"

"That proves nothing!" Nico face-palmed. Piper rolled her eyes and smiled at Nico, fluttering her fingers at him as she headed over to break them up, as the were getting closer and closer to each other, Percy puffing out his chest slightly to make up for the few inches height difference. "Girls, girls, you're both stunning. Come on. We're here for Nico."

"I thought we were here to interrogate him about that Apollo kid?" Jason asked teasingly, and Nico could feel his face turn bright red.

"Nothing. Shut up. I mean, what Apollo kid? None of your business." All of the other demigods tried not to laugh, and Piper failed miserably.

"You know, he's bi, about, hm, ye high? Gorgeous blond hair, these _AMAZING_ abs-"

"He has abs!?" Nico choked on the water he was drinking in hopes that the cup would hide his blushing.

All of them cracked up again, except for Nico. "I mean, Abs. Wow. I really would like to meet this beautiful stranger…" Piper gave him a disappointed look. "FINE! I'm here because of Will. Happy?"

"Couldn't be more so. And the sun's about to come up, so we need to scoot. Bye!" She kissed him on the cheek, and scrambled out of the infirmary. Percy punched im on his good shoulder. "Catch you later, bro!" Jason waved and slapped him on the back. "Get better!" When they all left, he sighed, and laid back down. The day hadn't even started yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Nico woke up groggy and confused to see Will Solace leaning over him. "Zeus! You sleep like the dead. No pun intended." He grinned, and started to unwrap the bandage to check on Nico's wound. "A bit better, but I think you need a little more time in bed." Nico raised an eyebrow. Will backtracked immediately. "I-I-Um, I meant to uh, I mean for recovery."

"Sure." Nico flopped back onto the bed again, and winced- again. _I really need to stop flopping so much. _"So! 3 days, right? Then I'm free to go?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Will had gotten up to do medical things and was only half paying attention. He turned around, and started _singing._

"Whoa, dude, what are you doing?" Nico scrambled back into an upright position, then out of the bed.

"I'm singing" He stated it like, 'duh'.

"Ok, _why are you singing_?" Will sighed exasperatedly and looked up at the ceiling. "Every time," He muttered. "It's a hymn to Apollo. It's how we heal people here."

"Oh. Um, well seeing as Apollo's MIA, could we skip it this time?" Nico wouldn't meet will's eyes. He said it quietly, but his tone told Will he wouldn't stay here long if he didn't comply. Will threw his palms up in surrender.

"_Di immortales. _Fine. But I have more patients to see. No running off. A nymph should be by soon with breakfast." Will walked over to another cot, and Nico watched him as Will's expression softened considerably whilst looking at the girl in the cot in question. She was very pale, with ebony hair, and she was so thin it was frightening. The girl was wearing a white tanktop, and cobalt blue gym shorts with white and black stripes down the side. Her breathing was very shallow, and she didn't stir when Will gently took her pulse from her neck, or when he wrapped a fabric cuff around her upper arm and took her blood pressure. One of the breakfast nymphs stopped by her cot and placed a bowl of ambrosia pudding on her side table, and tapped Will on the shoulder. She said something indistinguishable, and Will nodded in response, tiredly. She then took his spot and started murmuring happily, smiling and chatting one-sidedly with the girl as if nothing was wrong with the fact that she was being spoon-fed. Nico got a feeling in his gut that she wasn't going to last very much longer.

"Her name's Cecily."

"Huh?" Nico turned and saw a satyr he hadn't noticed in the cot beside him. One of his legs was wrapped in a fresh but bloodstained bandage. His hair was like typical satyr hair, brown and curly, and his eyes were large and very dark brown.

"The girl. Her name. It's Cecily. Ah, thanks, Mindy!" Another nymph handed him an origami bowl made of newspaper filled with what looked like wild berries. He winked at her as she giggled and blushed. "No problem Barry!" She ran off to get more food.

"That's Mindy." Barry explained to Nico.

"I gathered. Cecily, what's her story?" Barry looked at him sadly.

"It's not a fun one." A couple of visitors gave Nico dirty looks on their way out. He ignored them though, he was used to it. Barry wasn't. "Lord Zeus, what did you do to _them_?" He looked at Nico's slight frame incredulously, as if calculating how such a small kid could do something to make the girls that angry.

"My dad killed their puppy." Barry looked frightened. "He probably killed yours too. He's killed everyone's puppy. A parent or two every now and then, A _large_ number of goldfish." Then Barry laughed.

"Oh! You're that Hades kid, huh? I was wondering when I'd run into you. You're funny." Nico looked at him dryly.

"Right." _Three days. Three days. Three days. I promised three days. _

"Anyways, Cecily's an Aphrodite kid, and well, she didn't have the best self esteem. She was curvy, you know? Like a greek girl is supposed to be. Then she got to camp and saw all the beautiful kids that shared her cabin, and suddenly, about a 2 weeks after getting to camp, she passes out during the rock climbing tournament. Falls about 20 feet. Turns out, she had stopped eating, trying to look all heroine chic, like her brothers and sisters. Been in here for about a month. I'm sure she'll be fine. Will's the best here!" _No. No, she really won't._ Nico thought. But he silenced it. It was bad enough, being the child of Hades in a place of healing, he didn't need to start shouting when people were going to die. He started to get tired again, his eyelids heavy. "I think I'm going to go to sleep, Barry."

"Hey, Kid, you good?" But Nico was already asleep.

"Dude! Hey, little dude!"

"Shh! Percy, have some respect. He's obviously still sleeping."

"Well, he needs to stop doing that, because we need to go!" Nico opened his eyes just in time to see a familiar pair of grey eyes roll at Percy's antics. She the "little dude's" eyes and winked, causing Percy to look at him. He smiled immediately. "Hi, Nico! How are you? Wait, Annabeth do we have time?" Annabeth checked her watch, and thought for a minute

"We will if we run for it."

"All right, Nico, you may answer the question." Nico was confused.

"I'm, uh, I'm fine. Time for what?" Percy grimaced, and Annabeth interjected.

"That's what we're here to talk to you about. We're, uh, well, we're moving to New Rome today." She looked away. "The goodbye party was last night." She fiddled with the hem of her shirt and smiled uncertainly, waiting for a response.

"Oh." Nico's voice broke. He had forgotten that specific little detail of his friends' little happy ending. The first demigods he'd ever befriended (and his first crush) were moving almost 3,000 miles away. He knew he could always visit, but it wouldn't be the same. Visiting would mean watching them build a new life around themselves, one that he wouldn't be able to be a part of. That hurt almost more than the fact that they were his best friends, and they were abandoning him. They had every right to, of course, but summer would never be like it was before. Now it wouldn't include them. He cleared his throat and faked a smile. "That's awesome, guys! I mean, wow. You're going to be great!" Percy and Annabeth smiled hugely.

"We couldn't leave without saying goodbye. And we're going to visit so much, you'll be sick of us in no time." Annabeth added that last note with a hint of sincerity creeping in, as if she could sense Nico's discomfort with the idea of the biggest constants in his life leaving. Nico laughed it off. swinging his legs over the bed to stand up and surprise them both with a hug. The second hug he'd given in three days. "I could never be sick of you guys," he whispered, and a couple of tears sprang to his eyes. He let go and quickly wiped them away, but Percy noticed.

"Aw, Nico, don't cry. We'll be back to visit soon. I swear on the River Styx." nico chuckled as Percy patted him on the back and pulled him in for another hug. Then Annabeth did the same. She saw her watch from behind Nico's back and swore. "Percy we have to run now. Nico, I uh, um-"

"Goodbye." He finished for her, "Iris Message me when you get there safely." She nodded and kissed him on the cheek, grabbed Percy's arm, and booked it towards Half-Blood Hill. Nico laid back in his bed, his heart hurting and feeling just a bit emptier. He missed them already.


End file.
